I attempted to trade stocks back then. Used MB Trader (It was called something like that). I had to pay $250 a month in fees. Didn't have any success, but I was trading from work. Yeah, I know. I remember I made $800 in like 10 minutes in one trade and was on top of the world. Lost it just as fast.
There are many banks offer that service at that time. It is mostly very simple platform, but pretty much enough.
I "invested" through eTrade, a couple dozen stocks in total. Every one of them went up, but I knew nothing of profit targets or stop losses and believed the buy-and-hold myth. Rode half of down to losers, and gave up about even. I still have an account there, and eTrade hasn't really changed.
i traded at momentum securities back then using the m-trade software. the only downside was paying around $30 per thousand shares traded. the biggest difference i remember is there were no hot keys, every order execution was a bit more involved.